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How to Make Your Own Ovenbird Nest

Ovenbirds are a small avian species found living throughout the forests of eastern North America in the milder months, and in South and Central America during the winter. The ovenbird, slightly smaller than a robin, lives and forages on the forest floor and is rarely seen. The material they use to build their tough domed nests comes from the twigs, mud and greenery they find during their foraging activities.

Things You'll Need

Mud
Container with lid
Small flexible twigs
Small leaves
Toothpicks
Knife

Instructions

- 1
  Collect about 5 to 7 lbs. of soft mud and keep it stored in a sealed container until ready to build. Gather three cups of flexible, thin twigs, a few handfuls of leaves and a handful of feathers. Don't worry about precise leaf and feather quantities, as long as you have the twigs in the proper quantity, leaves and feathers are just added for realism. You'll need enough mud and other ingredients to build a next that weighs at least 5 lbs. if you want it to resemble the real version.
- 2
  Mix all the feathers, twigs and leaves in with the mud by hand. Bear in mind ovenbirds do this as they build the nest, using their beaks and mixing tiny quantities before attaching them one at a time to the growing nest structure, resulting in a nest built in layers with painstaking slowness. Since you have human hands you can separate the two steps and mix all the parts first. Make sure your nest contains a greater quantity of mud than it does twigs or leaves. Mix thoroughly.
- 3
  Begin forming your nest. Sculpt its bottom half from one whole lump of clay mixed with twigs and leaves, and then sculpt its top half after. The top half should be sculpted in the form of a round, hollow dome or upside down bowl that's about 7 to 9 inches in diameter and about 6 to 9 inches tall. Make the domes walls between 2 and 4 inches in thickness. You'll want to sculpt the bottom half in the form of a wide ring that corresponds to the diameter and wall thickness of the top half, although you can thicken the walls to double that of the rest of the dome where they reach bottom. Make sure the walls of the nests bottom half are at least 5 inches tall from its bottom where it attaches to a thick branch or flat surface to where its open top will attach to the top half.
- 4
  Attach the top half to the bottom half by embedding toothpicks halfway into the bottom half's top edge and impaling the top half onto them until the two form a flush seam. Apply downward finger pressure at the seam between the two to smooth it out of visibility. Cut a 3-inch wide circular hole in one side of the fully formed nest near the bottom with a knife, this is your entrance.

Animals & Science